As is known, many types of cup dispensers are on the market, which in principle may be grouped into two main categories. A first category comprises cup dispensers in which the columns simply serve as receptacles for the respective stacks of cups, and are configured, when individually brought into the dispensing station, to engage a common release device for releasing one cup at a time from the stack.
This category includes, for example, the cup dispensers disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,283,951 A, and 3,807,600 A, and WO 2013 033026 A1.
These cup dispensers generally have a relatively simple structure, but suffer from the limitation that they cannot be used to dispense cups of different sizes. In fact, each time a column is brought into the dispensing station, the respective stack of cups engages the release device in a non-reversible manner, and therefore the rotation of the columns in the dispensing station is only possible after the exhaustion of the cups of the stack that has previously engaged the release device.
A second category comprises cup dispensers in which the columns, in addition to serving as receptacles for the stacks of cups, are provided with respective release devices which can be selectively operated by means of a common actuator arranged in the dispensing station.
This category includes, for example, the dispensers disclosed in EP 0 339 946 A2, GB 2 402 386 A, GB 1 604 306 A.
The fact that each column is equipped with a respective release device allows each column to receive a stack of cups with a different size from that of the other columns and the columns to be selectively moved into the dispensing station depending on the cup to be used for the beverage selected by the user.
However, this advantage in terms of variety of cups that can be dispensed generally results in a greater structural complexity, in particular with regard to the aforementioned actuator, which must be designed not to interfere with the columns and the respective release devices during rotation of the magazine, and at the same time must be able to engage in a precise and stable, but also rapidly releasable manner, the release device arranged in the dispensing station so as to operate it, if a cup needs to be dispensed, or to let it move away as a result of the rotation of the magazine, if the size of the cup needs to be changed or the respective column has emptied.